


Sisters of the Apocalypse

by postal_ech



Category: The Last of Us, The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Drama, Family, Gen, POV Multiple
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-03-28 16:14:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13907679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/postal_ech/pseuds/postal_ech
Summary: Ellie was hopeful. Granted she may have just ran away from her home in Macon with no plan in mind, a backpack full of comics, and a few days worth of food, but she was so close to Atlanta. So damn close......Well, that is, until everything goes to hell in a hand basket the moment she decides to take a little rest.Now having found herself in the company of a little girl and her newfound guardian, she goes through thick and thin in order to stay with those she's met......and to hopefully find someone she left behind...





	1. Chapter 1: Runaway

**Author's Note:**

> So here we are, a Crossover that a few of us are actually familiar with instead of some Half-Life crossover.
> 
> Yeah the title is still a work in progress.
> 
> Probably.
> 
> But barring all of that, I plan on working on this, and perhaps another fanfic I've seen get a tad bit of attention, depending on if I both have the time and multitasking skills to extend it. Otherwise, hope you all enjoy this first chapter!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we are, a Crossover that a few of us are actually familiar with instead of some Half-Life crossover.
> 
> Yeah the title is still a work in progress.
> 
> Probably.
> 
> But barring all of that, I plan on working on this, and perhaps another fanfic I've seen get a tad bit of attention, depending on if I both have the time and multitasking skills to extend it. Otherwise, hope you all enjoy this first chapter!

    _“Fuck...my legs are killing me…”_

In a small neighborhood just a few miles out from Atlanta, a red-headed girl makes her way down the street that runs through towards the city, readjusting the backpack strapped onto her back as she wandered onward. This girl, Ellie, mutters yet another explicit soon afterwards in response to fatigue slowly getting the best of her, setting herself down near a fenced-off yard and breathing out a small sigh of relief once she finally took the opportunity to rest up a bit on such a wonderful afternoon. Taking the time to absorb her surroundings, she opens up her backpack to grab herself a snack to munch on, a relieving factor after hours of not eating since she left her place of residence a few miles back.

    “...Ah shit!” She yells, digging through her backpack again as she realizes something to her horror.

    “...Shit...I forgot to grab the latest edition of Savage Starlight!” moaning in disappointment, she sets her backpack aside and takes out an older edition of the comic she referred to. Savage Starlight, the sci-fi comic book series she always loved since the day she got her hands on the original set years back, and she managed to forget her latest copy back home. Sighing, she opens up the older copy to the beginning.

    _“Well, I guess I can always read some of the older editions before I can get my hands on a new one…”_ She thought to herself as she read through the comic. While she was bummed about the loss of the latest comic, it was slowly overlooked by just how peaceful the day was. The sun shone brightly in the clear sky and there was a lull in activity from many of the residents within this neighborhood, allowing Ellie the perfect time to read without interruption.

That is, until the deafening combination of metal colliding into wood rips her away from her distraction.

    “What the fuck!?” Ellie yelled as she quickly sets the comic down next to her backpack, looking for the source of the noise. Across the street from where she sat, the wreck of what was once a standard sedan stuck out half-way into a neighboring house, metal shrapnel strewn across the yard like if a bomb went off seconds before it was suppose to. Stuffing the comic book into her backpack, she jumps up from her spot and sprints over to the accident site, looking to help anyone that was injured.

It's what came crawling out from the wreck that freaked her out the most, unfortunately.

A man, thoroughly disfigured from the force of the accident, slowly crawls out from the shattered window of the car, moaning and wheezing as he did. His skin was pale and sickly looking, as if he was a dead man walking.

    “Holy shit, are you okay?!” Ellie asked, to which the only response she’d get was another emotionless moan. He’d begin to crawl towards her, his legs bent into odd angles, his lower half oozing dark-red blood and his eyes disturbingly lifeless.

    “...Uh...are you alright?” Ellie asked again in a slightly nervous tone. Yet again he remained unresponsive to her questions as he crawled onwards, the only sound he made being that gutteral, emotionless noise he made. It thoroughly freaked her out as he came forward, and soon enough she begins to find an excuse to just run off. “Look, I’ll...I’ll call for help and-”

Her sentence cuts off midway as she trips and falls onto the street from the sidewalk, letting out a pained expression as she skids herself on the concrete.

It's just then that this man grabs her leg as she was recovering, teeth bared as he attempted to bite into it. Letting out a small scream, she pulls her leg back as he held on, his grip tighter than what she expected it to be.

    “Get the fuck off of me!!” She yells, sending several harsh kicks into the man’s face. While he didn't seemed phased by the pain in the slightest, it allowed her to break free from his grasp and within a matter of seconds she crawls away to a safe distance. “What the fuck is wrong with you man?!” She yells again, picking herself up and running off to her backpack that laid near the fence where she originally was and, perhaps either out of panic or instinct, throwing it over the fence. Grabbing onto the edges of the fence, she pulls herself up and over as the man crawl over to her, reaching out with a pale bloody arm as she sat on the wooden barrier, keeping herself at a safe distance away from him.

    “Keep the fuck away from me, you crazy psychopath!” She yells at the person, who again only responds with an emotionless moan. Soon enough she climbs down into the backyard of a small home, grabbing her backpack once again as she listened to the hell breaking loose just outside. For the most part it sounded like a riot was breaking out as cars crashed into one another and gunfire pierced the air, a symphony of chaos that mixed with the growing collective snarls and groans of an unknown group of entities. People were screaming and yelling as the anarchy ensured, sirens wailed in the distance as whatever was happening over that fence raged on. Ellie, still shell-shocked from the events that transpired earlier, checks to make sure everything was secured in her backpack before she checks out the backyard.

So far, the only notable features this house had were a tree-house sitting high above the ground, and a swimming pool just next to it. Beyond that, it seemed whoever was here left in a rush; bits and pieces of canned food were left strewn across the back porch, a few toys were seemingly left in place as if someone was playing with them only moments prior, all of these things leading directly to the tree-house. Taking it as a sign that someone might still be nearby, Ellie readjusts herself, brushes off what dirt and debris covered her clothes, and yells out towards the tree house.

    “Hello?! Is anyone there?! There’s someone chasing me, I need help!”

Nothing. Not even a sound.

    “Anyone?! Seriously, I need some help! Please?”

Once again, she was answered with nothing but silence. Muttering a quiet curse under her breath, she proceeds to walk around to the front of the tree-house, still convinced that there might be someone hiding in there…

    “Someone in there?! Look I'm just a kid, I'm not trying to break into your house or anything, I just wanna know what the hell’s going on! Anyone?!” yet again, nothing but an uneasy stillness would follow afterwards. Sighing anxiously, she finds a good foothold within the tree itself, and begins to climb up to the tree-house’s entrance.

    “Okay! I’m...coming on in! Don’t attack me here, I’m not one of them!” Only thing she didn’t expect as soon as she got to face-level with the door was the wooden pallet swinging open faster than she could react, hitting her square on the forehead and sending her falling to the ground. She lands back-first, the air in her lungs being sucked out by the force of the landing, which follows up with her attempting to regain her breath.

    “I...said...I wasn’t...gonna do shit! What the...what the fuck, man!” She sputtered, holding her gut as pain wracked her entire body.

    “Yeah? Well firstly, you need to watch that mouth, kid! Secondly, you don’t just try to climb into people’s yards like that!” Someone yelled from the treehouse, an older-sounding woman, perhaps no more in her late teens to early twenties.

    “...Wasn’t...my yelling enough for you?! I told you...someone...chased me and shit! Where...where else was I supposed...to go here?!”

    “Sandra!” A smaller voice peeped from inside the treehouse. “What’s going on?!”

    “It’s nothing Clementine, just stay there for a moment!” The older woman, presumably named Sandra, responds. She then throws down the rope ladder leading up to the treehouse and climbs down to Ellie’s level, kneeling down next to her.

    “...Ahh...alright look I’m sorry...we’re just trying to stay safe here…”

    “Yeah...well that’s a real...nice way to say ‘hi’...” Ellie groans, slowly being helped up by Sandra soon afterwards.

    “Are you okay?” She asks Ellie in a concerned tone, giving her a once-over to see if there was any damage.

    “No...but I think you might’ve given me a broken rib…” Ellie jokes, groaning in pain once again soon afterwards, as if it was karma for making such a call.

    “...Well, can you climb?”

    “Of course I can, just...promise you won’t send any more doors into my face, alright? That really, really fucking hurt.”

    “Swear!” The little voice peeped from the tree-house once again, whom Ellie figures was the ‘Clementine’ that Sandra had responded to earlier.

    “...Yeah you’re gonna have to keep that kind of talk on a down-low, alright? I have an eight-year old up there scared out of her mind…”

    “An eight-year old?” Ellie raises an eyebrow, mainly out of curiosity. “What, is she your kid or something?”

    “No no...just…” She pauses for a moment, hesitating to answer Ellie’s question. In fact, she completely redirects it after a few short moments of silence.

“...Look that doesn’t matter, what’s your name?”

    “It’s Ellie. I’m assuming your name is ‘Sandra’?”

    “...Something like that, yeah. The little girl up there is Clementine.”

    “Well...wanna thank you again for the friendly introduction you gave me. What’s next, a sucker punch to the eye?”

    “...No...just...come on, I’ll help you up.”

    “It’s fine.” Ellie states curtly, grabbing a hold of the rope-ladder that extended to the treehouse. “I can climb on my own here.”

 

Moments later, the two girls finally climb into the safety of the tree-house, with Sandra pulling the ladder back inside. The first thing she’d notice, of course, was the small pile of canned food - baked beans, canned corn, soup, and other products - and already she started to feel her stomach grumble in anticipation of some food.

The second thing she’d notice was the little girl, staring at her in an unsure, slightly paranoid manner.

    “...Are you gonna be okay? You have a...a big dark spot on your forehead.” She’d ask, as if trying to break the ice between her, Sandra, and their new-found guest.

    “Huh?” Ellie asks, pressing a hand against her forehead where the door had made contact. She cringes a bit as a spike of pain ran through it, realizing what Clementine meant by her statement.

    “It’s uh...nothing, I’ll be fine.” She assures the little girl, focusing her attention now on her babysitter, Sandra.

    “So...you have any idea what's going on?”

    “...No...not A clue…” Sandra whispers, motioning towards the house. “We were just doing our own thing when the news came on about...well...all of this. They’ve made it out to be some sort of national emergency, warned people to lock their doors, stay in their homes and ‘await further instructions’ but...well, I didn't want to take that chance...you know, that it would be here before we could make it to safety. Clementine suggested to hide in her tree house, we grabbed what food we could get and...here we are…”

    “Right…” Ellie sighs, scooting herself up against the corner of the tree house as she tried to cancel out the noise from outside.

    “So...where are you from? Are you a neighbour?” The little girl, Clementine, asks, causing Ellie to jerk up a bit.

    “What? Oh...uh…” Ellie pauses for a moment, hesitant to answer her question. Seeing as how they're allowing her to stay with them in this tree house until things calmed down, she had no other choice but to tell the truth. “Um...no...I’m not. I'm from Macon.”

    “Macon? What’re you doing all the way up here?” Sandra asks, a tone of concern surrounding her question.

    “Visiting relatives.” Ellie quickly answers, hoping they would buy her lie.

    “Um...well, you can stay with us until it's safe...right?” Clementine asks.

    “Of course she can stay with us" Sandra swiftly responds, though this quickly turns they are nearby, right?”

    “Yeah, uh...they're in the city last I heard.” Ellie lies again...though this time she could tell that Sandra was starting to see through her set of lies. Out of sheer luck, however (or perhaps out of a strong sense of sympathy), Sandra gives her a short, affirmative nod.

    “Alright...you girls should rest up a bit. You especially...” She motions to Ellie, who was already making herself comfortable.

    “Yeah...uh...thanks for letting me hole up here. I really mean it.” She responds quietly.

    “It's no problem...and sorry about your forehead there.” Sandra returns, to which Ellie simply shrugs.

    “Hey, I'm just not sleeping on the grass or hiding in someone’s closet, so honestly it was worth it.”

    “Worth taking a door to the head?” Sandra asks, causing the red-head to let loose a stiffled chuckle.

    “I mean..." She hesitates for a split second, giving up almost immedietly the moment she attempted to find a good argument. "you know what I mean.” The three girls laugh it off as the chaos outside slowly died down, replaced instead by an eerie, unsettling silence broken only by the distant moans of these monsters. As they settled down, Clementine turns to the window nearest to her, looking out to the rest of the neighborhood.

    “...Will things get back to normal soon?”

    “I'm sure they will, Clementine.” Sandra responds in an optimistic manner. Ellie, on the other hand, looks out towards the neighborhood with Clementine, realizing just how bad everything was becoming...and her thoughts then turn to Macon.

Pushing the images out of her mind, she sits herself back down, exhausted from the chaos that transpired just moments ago...but, out of fear of something happening, she fights to keep herself awake.

    “Go on now, get some rest.” Says Sandra, noting Ellie’s growing fatigue.

    “...You sure?” Ellie asks in turn.

    “Yeah, don't worry. I'll keep an eye out for the both of you.” With a tired nod, Ellie would readjust her backpack, fashioning it into a makeshift headrest and, after yet another reassurance from both Sandra and even Clementine, she finally dozes off into a semi-comfortable sleep…

 

_...Then she hears a scream, coming from the house..._


	2. The Fateful Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As day turned to night and both Ellie and Clementine settled down in the safety of the tree-house, an ear-piercing scream emitting from inside the house causes the both of them to wake up. With Sandra nowhere to be seen, and with their lack of food slowly becoming more of an issue, the two attempt to survive the oncoming nights as the neighborhood around them slowly descended into chaos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, about a month and seventeen pages later I finally get to update this story! Truth be told I think I'm finally getting a vibe on how I'm gonna schedule the release of chapters out, as work and college make it practically impossible to get anything out any time soon (or at the very least, when it comes to writing chapters that are more than 3,000 words long).
> 
>  
> 
> _Thus begins the crossover I've actually envisioned since getting into the hobby of, well, writing crossovers of course._
> 
>  
> 
> It'll still be a bit before the third chapter comes out of course, responsibilities call here and abandoning them will send me into a deep downward spiral of hellish proportions, so I hope you all enjoy this lengthy chapter!
> 
>  
> 
> __  
> **ALSO! As a side-note, beyond review-begging here and there, constructive criticism is always appreciated. Truth be told I had some issues writing some of this out, so anything that would help improve the writing of this wonderful little crossover is always greatly appreciated! And as always, stay tuned for the next chapter!**  
> 

Clementine woke up to the shrill scream that broke the midnight silence, one she recognized the second she heard it.

It was Sandra’s, and it came directly from the kitchen.

She recalled how, just a few hours ago, Sandra told her that she’d get more food when night came rolling in...while she protested heavily against this idea, the adult remained steadfast in her decision to scavenge the house. Even when she was told to go to sleep, there was always that faint, nagging voice in the back of her head, one that told her to stay up, just so Sandra couldn't leave...just so they’d be safe. Instead fatigue had gotten the best of her, and she now found herself alone with the girl she only met hours ago.

Fearing for the worst, Clementine crawls over to Ellie, grabbing and shaking her shoulder in an attempt to wake her up. “H-hey...wake up...wake up!”

“...No...just...gimme five more minutes…” Ellie responds in a groggy, tired voice, barely even moving as she fell right back asleep.

“Please, wake up!" She pleads, shaking the sleeping teen once again. "It’s...it's serious!”

With an equally tired grunt, Ellie slowly sat herself up at Clementine’s request, rubbing the base of her neck as she looked over to the now-terrified girl. “...What, what’s wrong? Where’s uh…” The girl looked scanned the treehouse for a moment, noticing that the Babysitter was nowhere to be seen.

“I-I heard Sandra scream...in the house.” Clementine responds timidly pointing towards the door leading out to the back yard . “I think...something got to her…”

Apprehensively Ellie mouths a silent ‘oh shit’ as she realized what Clementine was referring to.

Not even a day into this hell-hole, and something bad’s already going on, she thought to herself in that ever-so-slightly pessimistic manner.

Slowly, she slides herself over to the small door and pushes it open a crack, looking through the tiny opening she made with it. While the street lights illuminated only a small portion of the back-yard, and even a smaller portion of the back-door with accompanying porch, she saw that the glass door leading inside stood wide open...

And just two feet away from the door she barely makes out a human-like figure, hunched over something behind the counter.

Quietly Ellie opens the door further, careful not to attract any unwanted attention as she crawled herself outside...to the dismay of the little girl behind her.

“Wait! W-what are you doing?!” She whispered fearfully, causing Ellie to refocus her attention onto her. She notices the fear in the little girl’s eyes - a look that silently pleaded for her to stay in the tree-house - but with the ever-present and ever-growing danger that Sandra was in, she seemingly makes up her mind on the matter and lets out a soft, hesitant sigh.

“...Look, I’m gonna go down there and look for Sandra, alright?”

“No!” Clementine practically yells, covering her mouth out of fear of attracting more danger to them. “...No, don’t go down there! What if...what if it gets you too?”

“We gotta know if Sandra’s okay...” Ellie responds in a serious manner. “She could still be alive down there...maybe even with some of that food...stuff we’re running low on, you know?”

“But…” As Clementine hesitated once again, she watches as Ellie - in quite a surprisingly calm manner, compared to when she first met her - explains to the little girl her plan of action.

“I’ll be careful, alright? I’ll go down there...check out what happened, maybe grab some more food you two left behind and come right back here.”

“...Promise?” Clementine asks once again, to which Ellie responds again with a sympathetic smile, and a small affirmative nod.

“I promise...plus then some, if I get the chance.”

 

Slowly, Clementine watches as the red-headed girl climbs out of the treehouse, making sure her footing was just right as she lowered herself onto the rope ladder leading to the ground. As she followed her out, Ellie motions towards the ladder.

“As soon as you hear me call for ya, you throw down this ladder alright?”

“O-Okay!”

“And don’t throw it down for anyone else, just me!” Ellie adds, and Clementine nods once again.

“Okay!”

“And...just stay here until I get back, alright?”

“Okay, okay!" The little girl finishes. "I...didn’t wanna leave anyways…”

And just like that, she watches as Ellie jumps down from the ladder and sneaks her way to the poarch. She continued to watch until Ellie slowly entered through the back-door leading inside, disappearing into the darkness that covered the whole room - save for perhaps the blue glow of the TV that illuminated a small portion of the living room.

It felt like time slowed to a crawl as soon as her new-found friend snuck into her home, even as she patiently - and timidly - waited for her return. As seconds turned to minutes, then to nearly fifteen minutes, she decides to take a look out towards her home street to watch the slow, shambling humanoid figures move across the debris-ridden pavement. She felt a small sense of relief that these things, whatever they were, couldn’t see either of them up in her tree house, let alone even climb to their level. With no response from that girl she met, however, it started to get more and more worrisome.

Then she hears her yelp from the backdoor, followed up by a low gurgle emitting further inside.

Clementine quickly turns her attention to the backyard as Ellie sprinted out from the kitchen, terrified beyond all reason as she ran for dear life.

“Clementine! Clementine throw it down! Throw it fucking down!!”

“What's going on?!” Clementine yells out.

“Just throw it down, hurry!!!” Ellie screams, desperately sprinting for dear life towards their safe house. Without a second thought, the girl quickly grabs the rope ladder and throws it on down to Ellie, who immediately starts climbing up the moment she grabs it. Then, just as she was half-way up to the tree house, another low gurgling noise emits from inside the house once again, causing Clementine to redirect her attention to her house.

Shambling out into the barely-lit backyard was someone she didn't recognize, mouth agape and face looking slightly rotted. His eyes were completely lifeless and his leg seemed badly damaged as he crawled over the railing separating the porch from the rest of the backyard, stumbling towards Ellie as she climbed to the top of the tree house. Without hesitation she pulls the rope ladder back into the tree house, just as the monster made his way to the base of the tree, moaning and groaning as he stretched his arms out to the two terrified girls.

“What's wrong with these guys?! Why - Jesus I...holy shit...holy shit…” Ellie mutters as she crawled away from the edge of the tree house, exhausted from the brief sprint she made to safety. Clementine soon accompanies her as they both crawled back inside, keeping themselves as far away from the entrance as they could.

“S-Swear…” the little girl peeps as she huddled herself near the corner, catching an apologetic gaze from her red-headed friend.

“Sorry…just...heat of the moment stuff...man...”

As the two listened to the tired, unending moans of the intruder outside, Clementine moves herself closer to Ellie, lowering her voice out of fear of attracting more attention to themselves. “Did...did you find Sandra?”

“I…” she notices Ellie hesitating to answer, and one by one she begins to put the pieces together in her head.

“...The monsters did get her, didn't they?”

Once again she notices Ellie hesitating, a noticeable sense of guilt and pain slowly giving herself away.

“...Yeah...she...she didn't make it. That...thing...was...it was…” She shook her head before she could even finish the description.

“...Well...what about food? Did you get anything?” Clementine 

“...I tried to get us some more food, but that...thing...saw me before I could get much. All I got were...well, these.” She pulls out two cans of baked beans from her backpack, setting them out in front of Clementine...who only looked on in disappointment.

“...You only got the ones without those...pull-up tabs, or whatever. We didn't bring a can-opener up here…”

“Why not? No offense Clem, but...well that sounds kind of dumb.” Ellie asked, visibly irritated by the now-known fact.

“It wasn't my fault!” Clementine shoots back, pouting a bit in response to Ellie’s statement. “We ran up here as fast as we could! All I brought was my walkie…” She calms down a bit as she grabs a sizeable hand-held radio from a corner of the tree house, showing it off to Ellie...who seems to also relax a bit at the realization of just how hasty their plan was put together.

“...Sorry for getting you riled up, I didn't know…”

“...Its okay...um...you didn't have to call me dumb though…”

“Hey I wasn't calling you dumb, I was just calling out whatever Sandra had in mind…”

The mention of Sandra only brings Clementine’s mood back down to square one yet again as she realizes just how dangerous everything was outside the tree house. This was driven home as the intruder below continued to claw at the tree in a fruitless endeavor to reach the two girls hidden within.

“...Are...are we gonna end up like Sandra?” Clementine quietly asks the girl next to her, who replies with a firm “No.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well...that thing didn't get me when I was in the house, now did it?”

“...It still got her though…”

“Yeah...but they're slow and stupid, at least that's what I’m getting from that guy down there.” Ellie then motions her head towards the entrance, referring to the undead abomination snarling down below. As a response Clementine just sighs, laying herself down on the hard wooden floor of the tree house.

“...Did the monsters get her because she wasn't smart or fast enough?” The red-headed girl hesitated to answer - or it seemed that way, according to Clementine - as she sits her backpack to the side and lays her head down onto it.

“Sandra was smart and fast...it's just...they tend sneak up on you. I think that's how they got her.” She then rolls over to look at the little girl next to her. “That's why we gotta be careful now...in case we ever have to leave.”

“...I don't wanna leave until my parents get back.”

With a small sigh, she watches as Ellie readjusts herself, nodding to Clementine’s statement.

“Yeah...let's just get some rest. We’ll figure out what to do tomorrow.”

“Are you sure? What about the monster down there?”

“We’ll be safe...just as long as it doesn't learn how to climb trees.” With that said, she then throws in a “Which they won’t.” for good measure, slowly putting Clementine at ease. Soon enough both girls begin to drift off to sleep, with Clementine exchanging a silent “Good-Night” to the red-headed girl next to her, the snarling and moaning from below slowly being drowned out as she passed out from exhaustion alone.

 

The next morning Clementine lets out a small groan as she sat herself up, feeling stiff as the boards she slept on. As she stretched herself out, she notices Ellie already attempting to open one of the cans of food they had sitting around, giving the small girl a nod.

“Morning, sleepyhead.”

“Morning…” Clementine mutters in response, letting out a soft yawn as she gradually woke up.

“So...how’d you sleep?” Ellie asks as she pops open one of the cans, setting it down so she could open the second one.

“...I feel a little sore, I guess…” Clementine responds, rubbing the base of her neck in tandem with her answer.

“Perks of sleeping on nothing but wood...wish we had something better than a backpack to sleep on.” She then slides the open can of beans to the girl, before she opens up her own can.

“Here, breakfast. I made sure to use the ones with those tabs first...we’ll worry about the other ones later.”

With a gracious nod and a small “Thank you.”, Clementine grabs the can of beans and, making sure the beans didn’t cause too much of a mess, takes small bites of its contents. Although reluctant at first, she began to chow down on the sizeable moresal - mostly out of the fact that she was too hungry to really complain - and to which causes Ellie to snicker a bit.

“Man, never expected you to be this hungry. Did ya even eat yesterday?”

“Um...well...Me and Sandra were about to…” Clementine mutters, covering her mouth as she spoke. “Then you came and got bonked on the head.”

“Hey, that still sucked by the way.”

Clementine giggles a bit, remembering just how hard and how fast Sandra sent the door into Ellie’s head the afternoon prior. Ellie, on the other hand, replies with a small gaze of dissatisfaction, silently disagreeing with Clementine’s reaction. As they ate through their ration of the day, both would slowly begin to notice how quiet it became once they focused their attention outside. It was as if the air itself stood still, what with the absence of life just beyond the backyard. Even the critters - which were lively just yesterday - were nowhere to be seen. Unsettled by the eerie silence, Clementine quietly scoots over to her red-headed companion, fearful that even a small noise would bring forth the monsters that may be lurking just outside.

“...Where are all the monsters…?”

“...I don’t know…” Ellie whispers back, scanning the backyard for any signs of life. Just then, as she was just about to confirm her suspicions, something shatters just nearby. Clementine, gasping at the shock of the sudden noise, quickly crawls over to the window to see a man attempting to break into her house.

“Hey! That guy! H-He’s breaking in!”

“Holy shit!” Ellie mutters, to which she quickly corrects herself as soon as the little girl reminds her of the loose swear. Unable to do much and fearful that the man was probably armed, they watched from their treehouse as he attempted to throw a rock into the glass door, which bounces off the large pane of glass harmlessly.

“Hey! Stop that!” She yells, to the dismay of her friend.

“Hey-Hey! Keep it down, Clem! Those things are probably still around here!”

“But he’s taking my stuff! It’s not right!” Clementine shouts back. Just as she was about to yell again, they hear the man let out a high-pitched yelp as he jumped back from the door. Within a matter of seconds he vaults over the railing of the back porch, frantically jumping onto and climbing over the wooden fence as one of the monsters gave chase. The girls quickly crawl back inside before it saw them, listening to the struggle that went on outside as the failed robber made his escape...and as things settled down, Clementine lets out a small, shaky breath.

“...That monster...it must’ve found him when he was making all that noise…” She says, looking over towards the side of her house. “If we’re really quiet...maybe they’ll just go away?”

“I’m not too sure about that, Clem...but it’s a idea to keep in mind.”

With that said, Clementine seals her mouth shut, even after the monster wanders off into the neighbourhood...it was only until the question about the can-opener popped into existence that she breaks her moment of silence to protest on the idea of leaving the sanctuary of their tree house. Of course, that protest was soon overruled by their need of food and the tools needed to obtain it, and reluctantly she lets Ellie grab whatever is needed - which only included the can-opener and a kitchen knife at the time.

Eventually as day turned to night and the monsters were still left unseen, the silence that once filled the night prior would be replaced with the distant pops and cracks of gunfire - something that slowly began to bring out the groaning, lifeless creatures from their unseen corners of the neighbourhood. Stricken by fatigue and unable to sleep due to the constant noise, the two girls continue to sit up for a while longer, with Clementine keeping her head propped up on Ellie’s backpack. In an attempt to keep her mind off of the violence taking place deep in her own neighbourhood, she looks over to Ellie - barely keeping herself awake as is - and promptly proceeds to ask her a few questions.

“...Do you think things will go back to normal soon?”

“Honestly?” Ellie responds with a groggy voice as she turns to the little girl next to her. “I don’t know...I hope so…”

“If things do go back to normal, will you have to go see your parents?”

“Uh...I uh…” She seemingly hesitates for a moment, as if it was a seemingly sensitive topic. Sensing this, Clementine lets curiosity get the best of her, and she begins to probe into the topic further.

“...Where are your parents? Are they on vacation too?”

“No, they uh…” Ellie looks down for a moment, clearly displaying that what she told Sandra and her wasn’t entirely part of the truth.

“My uh...My mom died a while back, when I was a little kid. Never got to see my dad…”

“Oh...I...I'm sorry...that’s so sad…” Clementine admits, looking too obvious that she seemingly regretted bringing up such sad memories...but nevertheless, she tries her best to lighten up the mood...or at least as much as she thought she could.

“...Well...where are your other parents? Your other Mom and Dad?”

“You mean adoptive parents?” Ellie pauses on the question, taking a moment to come up with an answer.

“That would be...uh...that would be Marlene. She was...a pretty close friend of my mom, took care of me for a good while until she sent me to live with a friend of hers, named Joel.”

“Oh...where are they now?”

Marlene? I don't even know, being completely honest here. All I know is that she's still in Boston somewhere, told me she was taking care of something - hell if I know what it was all about, but it sounded pretty serious. Joel was just...well, he was too much to handle though. As much as I liked the guy, I needed some air...so...I kinda packed up some of my stuff and ran away.”

It seemingly shocked Clementine to hear that her day-long friend was in fact a run-away. Wide-eyed and quite frankly a little excited to hear more about ‘Ellie the Runaway’, she readjusts herself and gives Ellie her full attention.

“You ran away? Wow...what’s it like?”

“What, running away? It’s...interesting, I guess. People usually call it ‘hitchhiking’ but I kinda don’t get why, at least the hitching part anyways. But yeah...packed up some stuff after a fight with Joel and...ran away from his house in Macon...I was gonna try and pick up a bus to Boston - Where I use to live, ya know - but...well...yeah, you can see how that turned out.”

“...Do you miss Joel?” Clementine askes, with a genuine hint of concerning authenticity in the question.

“Of course I do...we may’ve had some fights I guess but...yeah I miss him...and I’m really worried about the guy.”

“...Well...when my parents get back, maybe we can go look for him down in Macon.” The little girl answers hopefully, smiling a bit at the thought of the two of them tagging along to find this ‘Joel’ person she stayed with. It even causes Ellie to smile a little bit as well, though perhaps for different reasons not including travelling together.

“Really? You’d do that for some random kid like me? A kid that got hit in the head by a door?”

“Well yeah...I mean...we’re friends anyways...right?”

“Oh hell yeah, we’re friends, especially after what’s been going down.”

“Swear.” Clementine corrects, which causes Ellie to nearly swear again in response.

“Shi-shoot! Sorry...old habits die hard, right?”

And with that, the two of them giggle off the tension that had surrounded the midnight air prior, ignoring the chaos and violence that lurked within the now-abandoned neighbourhood.

 

The next morning, however, was quite eventful compared to the previous day.

 

It was nearly mid-afternoon when the girls woke up once again - both of them slept in late after having been kept up by the distant gunfire last night - and once again the streets were seemingly empty. Nothing seemed to move across the now-damaged pavement, even the wrecked cars seemed as if they were just immobile objects that a bomb couldn’t even get rid of.

It was only a few hours in the day, however, that it sounded like a bomb went off in the woods.

Both girls turn their attention to the direction of the ungodly loud noise emitting from the woods, like metal slamming and scraping into pavement. Once it stopped, however, Clementine would look to Ellie in a fearful manner.

“Wh-....What was that…?”

“I….I dunno...sounded like a car crash…” Says Ellie quietly, the uncertainty of her answer being ever-prevalent in her voice.

“...Should...should we go out there?”

“I...don't think that’d be a good idea right now...every zombie or whatever would’ve heard that for miles around.”

While Clementine silently disagreed with just leaving people to die, she knew she had a point. That noise, whatever it was, would attract any and every monster from everywhere - or at least she thought it would be everywhere, being that it was quite loud.

As another hour passed however, a distinct sound could be heard once again, like that of a shotgun being fired off. Determined to see if anyone was alive, the little girl crawls out of the tree-house, throws down the rope ladder, and climbs down from her sanctuary of safety - all while Ellie hounded her the moment she threw down the ladder.

“Clem? Clementine, wait where the hell are you going?!”

“Someone’s still out there!” Clementine shouts back, sprinting around her fence and into the woods. All the time Ellie followed closely, chastising Clementine silently as the two of them went to investigate the noise.

There, just a ways away between them was an overturned police cruiser, with an injured man sat up against it. In front of him laid a dead police officer, his head blown clean off the rest of his body. Having made no real attempts to hide, the girls hear him call out to them.

_“Hello?! Go and get help, there's been an accident!”_

While Clementine wanted to do exactly that, the ever-growing collective of groans coming from the undead monsters inhabiting the neighborhood grew louder and louder as they came to investigate the source of the noise. Ellie - obviously fearful that they would be trapped if they stayed too long - grabs Clementine's hand and quickly tugs her along back to her house.

Moments later, as they climbed back into the safety of the tree-house, Clementine looks over to the red-head.

“We...we probably should’ve helped him, Ellie…”

“...He was probably faking it...who knows...he probably could've tried to steal from us, like that one guy.” Ellie says as she begins to justify her choice. As she was about to explain further, the two hear something - or someone - climb over the fence separating the back yard from the woods…

Then came that familiar voice. It was the same man they found in the woods, calling out for help.

“Hello?! Is anyone there?!”

Both of the girls keep themselves out of sight as they listen to the man limp around the backyard, calling for help. As he called out to the treehouse, and to anywhere else, they remained in hiding. Even as he limped to the back porch and knocked (or in this case, pounded) on the glass door, the two girls remained completely silent until he entered. Slowly the two crawl towards the tree-house’s door, cracking it open a bit to see if the man inside was stealing anything.

As it turned out, he was merely searching the house, making observations on some of the old decorations, the tv...and eventually the answering machine. Despite the two being unable to hear anything, they notice his expression change to a more somber state as he searched the whole of the house, even as he got himself a drink of water, found the second walkie talkie sitting in the drawer, and continued to search for any signs of life. Eventually they watch as he stops at the answering machine once again, mouthing something neither of them recognized, and picks up a picture Ellie could barely make out.

It's then that Clementine takes out her own Walkie Talkie, and presses down on the receiver.

“Daddy?!”

Quickly, Ellie turns around and pulls the walkie talkie away from Clementine, anger obviously being present as she began to scold her...with a slight mix of panic to boot.

“Clementine! What are you doing?! We-”

Before she could even finish her sentence, they hear the man’s voice speak through the microphone.

“Hello…?”

Both girls look at each other as they realize what they've gotten themselves into. Slowly, Ellie hands Clementine the walkie talkie back to her, motioning her to respond. Although she was apprehensive to do so, there was no point in keeping themselves quiet any longer. Soon enough she brings the walkie talkie close to her mouth, peeking through the crack in the tree-house’s door

“You need to be quiet.”

Both of them immediately notice a change in his behaviour as soon as she responds to his question; He begins to look around the room cautiously, looking underneath the sofa and behind the counter as he continued to talk into the walkie talkie.

“Who is this?”

“I’m Clementine...this is my home.”

“Well, hi Clementine. I’m Lee.”

Lee, as the girls now knew him, then moves himself towards the kitchen.

“Are you alone? Where are your parents…?”

“No I...” she looks over at Ellie for a moment, making it quite clear that she was apprehensive of Clementine to give this information away. Nevertheless, the girl continues to speak to this “Lee.”

“I'm with a friend...she's been keeping me safe, until my Parents come back from Savannah...where the boats are.”

“I see…”

Eventually Lee makes it to the kitchen window, looking outside for any sign of danger.

“Are you safe?”

“Yeah, I'm in my tree-house. They can't get me there.”

“That's smart.”

“See? Can you see me? I can see you through the window.” She then opens up the tree-house’s door a little more, revealing both herself and the red-head next to her, waving him down from the interior of the tree-house. He waves back in turn with a small smile, and things seemed to be going well…

...that is, until the rotting corpse of Sandra came into view.

Terrified by the undead monster that was formally her babysitter and knowing just what kind of danger the man was in, she lets out a shrill scream through her radio, quickly crawling back into the tree-house. This is quickly followed up by Lee’s own terrified yell as the monster ambushes him, which cuts to radio silence a few seconds after the girl responded in fear. Putting two and two together, Ellie realizes the situation their “new-found friend” was in.

“Clem!? Clem what's wrong, what did you see?!”

“I-I-It was Sandra! I saw Sandra! She's-She's gonna get him!”

“Oh shit….oh shit!” Ellie responds, looking around for a weapon of some sorts.

“We need to get down there! Where's-shit where's something we can-”

“I-I don't have anything to kill it with! Wait...wait-” She quickly crawls over to where they kept most of their food, digging through the cans to find a single hammer buried underneath their supplies. Taking it into hand, she quickly crawls back over to the door, throwing the rope ladder to the ground

“Wait, you had that there this whole time?!”

“I forgot I still had it! I thought Sandra took it when she went out!” With a worried gasp, she notices Lee falling to the ground in front of the glass door, struggling to keep the undead Sandra from biting into him. With an equally worried shout and motioning Ellie to follow, the two girls quickly climb down to the back yard and sprint to the porch. There, Clementine would slide open the glass door just as Lee forces the monster off of him, holding the hammer close to her. Ellie soon follows in suit just as he sends his foot into the monster’s face.

“Here!”

Turning to see Clementine holding the hammer out to him, the man snatches it out of her hands and quickly follows up with a swift attack. He slams the hammer into the creature’s head, pinning it down once he knocked it out of the way. Even as it struggled against the weight of his knee, he continues to send it into its head time and time again, bits of skull and rotting flesh flecking off of the hammer as he repeatedly brought it down upon her. With a yell that sends a shock through both of the girls, he brings the claw of the hammer down one final time, piercing the skull of the undead abomination laid out in front of him and finishing it off entirely. Exhausted beyond all measurable belief, he struggles to pull the hammer out of the crushed skull of his former assailant, practically ripping it out of the shattered remains of undead brain matter, blood, and skull as he did...and half-disgusted as he looked upon the damage he caused.

“Oh man...that was intense...holy shit…” Ellie responds, looking over to the man as he picked himself up.

“You alright?”

“Yeah...yeah I’ll...I’ll be good.” He groans, sitting himself up once the ordeal was finished. He then looks over to the two girls, giving them an exhausted “Hi there…”

“...Did you kill it?” Clementine nervously asked, backing away from the scene and moving closer to Ellie in turn.

Looking down at the thing, he was absolutely sure it wouldn't come back from such a beating...unless they somehow managed to survive more than just shotguns and hammers to the head. Not wanting to terrify either girl in front of him, he gives them a silent nod.

“I'm not sure, uh...think something else got to her. before, I mean...”

“Yeah...I heard her scream two nights ago, and Ellie said one of them definitely got her.”

“Ellie? That’s...the friend you mentioned, right?”

“Yeah, that's me.” The red-head quickly responds, raising her hand in a half-hearted motion to acknowledge herself.

“...You two have been...all by yourselves in this?”

“Yeah...it's...been rough” Ellie quietly responds, watching as Clementine quietly muttered something about wanting her parents to come home.

“Well...look, I don't know what's going on here...but uh...I'll look after you two until then, alright?”

While Clementine seemed to appreciate this, Ellie seemed more apprehensive in just following this stranger right from the get-go. Inquisitively, she seemingly studies him for a moment to see if he could really be trusted...and surprisingly, he’d catch onto this soon after.

“...Look I get the concern, an injured man stumbling into your backyard isn't the best thing to be going off on, but I promise you I have no intention of hurting either of ya, alright?”

Seemingly convinced by the sincerity of the man (and realizing that he would've done something by now if he was lying), she gives Lee a silent nod of approval, whereas Clementine finally asks the question that's been hanging in the air for quite some time.

“...What should we do now?”

Realizing that night was coming soon, Lee kneels himself down in front of Clementine, gritting his teeth as he bent his injured leg to meet her height.

“We shouldn't stay here, it's too dangerous. We'll have a better chance of getting out while we still got some daylight.”

“Yeah...it's dangerous at night.” Clementine responds, an answer which Ellie supports.

“She’s right...longer we stay, the more of a chance those...things...will sneak up on you.”

With that said, Lee stands himself up and walks up to Clementine, gently taking a hold of her hand.

“Alright. Stay close to me...we’ll be out of here before you know it.”

 

Quietly the trio make their way out towards the back gate leading out towards the front yard, when they notice two people trying to move an abandoned car blocking their truck. As they notice two men struggling to move the wrecked car out of their way, Clementine stops for a moment and looks back to the tree-house that kept herself safe for those two opening days. Noticing this, Lee moves back over to the nervous girl.

“What's wrong?”

Clementine looks at Lee for a short moment, then over to Ellie...then she finally asks the question.

“Should...should we stay?”

Caught off-guard by the question, he seemingly looks over to Ellie for some sort of answer, to which she gives him an unsatisfyingly confused shrug.

“...What?”

“I...I don't want to sleep in the tree-house again tonight...but...what if my parents come home?”

The mention of her parents causes him to avert his gaze for a second, a twang of realization and guilt showing itself only for a second before he looks back at Clementine, giving her a firm answer.

“I won't leave either of you alone.”

Comforted by his statement, she gives the injured man a small, yet genuine smile.

“Let’s get to someplace safe that's close by, okay?”

“Yeah.” He then looks over to Ellie, noting the kitchen knife she still had in her hand.

“You, uh...know how to use this thing?”

“I mean...I guess I do.”

“Knowing and Guessing are two different answers here, Ellie.”

“Look, there's some messed up...crap...going on out there, alright? I think I can handle myself.”

“Just making sure here, didn't mean to offend.”

“Its...its fine. Let's just get out of here. Never wanna sleep in that tree house again.”

 

As Lee, Ellie and Clementine made their way to the front yard, the two men quickly spin around, surprised by their sudden entrance.

“Holy shit!”

“Don't eat us!”

“Woah, hey, don't worry, we’re not one of them!” Says Lee, quickly raising and waving his hands in a gesture of mercy.

“Oh man, you scared the shit out of us.” one of the younger men exclaim, letting out a sigh of relief soon after.

“Do ya have any idea what the hell is going on here?” Lee asks soon after, to which the younger man shakes his head.

“No idea, but it's hell about fifteen miles back. Barely made it out alive were it not for Chet.” He then motions to the man on his right once he mentions his name.

“Yeah, I can only imagine…” Lee responds, following up by introducing both himself and the girls behind him. Once everyone was well acquainted with each other, Shawn (the younger man) proceeds to motion to his truck.

“Listen, if you can help us move this car outta the way, we can get you, your daughter and...uh...her friend out of here.”

“I'm not her dad, I’m…” Lee hesitates to answer for a moment as he looks back at the two girls...before he could give them a direct answer, he hears Ellie pipe up next to him, sounding as confident with her own statement as ever.

“He's a neighbour. I was uh...babysitting for Clementine here when everything went down, and he decided to check in on us.”

“...Yeah...what she said.”

“Neighbour, huh?” Shawn asks, almost half-questioning Ellie’s answer before a loud, extended wheezing snarl emitted from a few blocks down the road.

“Them monsters’ comin’, we need to go!” Chet exclaims.

“Shit.” Shawn mutters quietly, turning back to Lee. “Listen, help us move this and you'll get whatever you need, but hurry!”

As the undead slowly approached the group, Lee would do his best with Shawn as he attempted to push the car out of the way, with Clementine and Ellie joining in soon after as the monsters got ever closer. Once the wreck was finally pushed out of the way, the four survivors quickly pile into the truck, swerving past the wreck they had managed to move. For a moment, Clementine looks back to see one of these monsters reaching out towards her as they sped past, sending a unfamiliar shiver down her spine. She seemingly kept close to both Lee and Ellie as they drove out of the infested neighbourhood, barely registering what Shawn had said to Lee.

 

As day quickly turned to night, the group slowly pull into the front yard of a homely-looking farmhouse, with all but Chet exiting the vehicle once they came to a stop.

“Look Shawn, I gotta get on home. Mama’s gonna be in a fuss if I don't.”

“Alright Chet, we’ll see ya tomorrow night. Stay safe man.”

With a quiet nod and a friendly wave to the others, he eventually reverses out from the front yard. Once Chet was out of sight, however, the group's attention would soon turn to an older-looking gentleman approaching them, looking at Shawn with a sense of sheer relief.

“Thank god you're alright.”

Both him and Shawn quickly hug one another once the Gentleman was close enough, with Shawn motioning to the direction Chet had driven off to.

“I wouldn't of made it were it not for Chet.”

“Well I'm glad you took him with ya.”

The old man’s attention soon turn to the other three standing behind Shawn, his initial relief turning into a growing concern.

“I see you brought a couple of guests.”

“Your boy’s a lifesaver, sir.” Lee quickly adds in, to which the older man responds with a small smile.

“Well, glad he was of use to someone here.” He then focuses on the two girls next to him, seemingly making mental notes on the both of them for a second before he focuses his attention back onto Lee, motioning to the barn nearby.

“We have another displaced family of three sleeping in the barn there. You and your...daughters…can rest up in the barn for the night.” He gives Ellie a rather questioning glance as he lingers on the word, noting the rather obvious difference between her and the other two. It's only when Shawn notifies him about who Lee is that his suspicions seem to fade...for a moment at least.

“Oh, no, he's actually their neighbour.”

“Neighbour, huh?” His gaze then falls on Lee’s injured leg for a moment, looking back at the man once he gets a good look.

“Looks like you busted up your leg pretty bad.”

“Yeah, it's uh...it's not doing so well.”

“I can imagine. Here, let's get you on the porch so we can get a better look.”

Slowly but surely the three approach the old farmhouse, with Lee taking a seat in one of the chairs nearest to the door. Ellie and Clementine, however, stand at the base of the porch as they watch Shawn’s father take a look at Lee’s injured leg. After a careful observation, he proceeds to grab a small white rag, pours some rubbing alcohol onto it, and carefully begins to wrap the wound up. As he did so, Shawn approaches him in a casual manner, motioning to the fence out near where they initially pulled in.

“Hey, dad, so I was thinking...tomorrow, we should really start fortifying this place. I don't know what you heard on the news but it's bad out there. Really bad.”

Taking this as a cue to interject, Ellie steps in front of Clementine a bit and adds in her own perspective.

“He's right. When this was all starting out, I saw a guy just...crawl out of a car wreck. Tried to bite my leg off as well...until I met her that is.”

The old man releases a small grunt as he takes Ellie’s statement into consideration, still cleaning Lee’s wound as he did so.

“Well, do what you gotta do.” He remarks, to the satisfaction of Shawn.

“Thanks Dad. I'll get started on it tomorrow.”

Soon, he turns his attention back to Lee as he slowly dresses the wound.

“I don't think I caught your name back there.”

“It's Lee.” He answers quickly, primarily focusing on both his leg, and the man’s handiwork as he operated on it.

“Well, nice to meet you, Lee, I'm Hershel Greene...So, how’d you bust up this leg of yours?”

“Car accident.”

“Car accident? Where were you going, home?”

“Uh, he was pulling in when someone crashed into him. I, uh, tried to help him out as best as I could.” Ellie answered, seemingly unsure if he would buy her lie. With a unsure grunt, he turns to look at the red head for a moment.

“I don't believe I asked you...but you at least gave me an answer, so I'll take it.”

He then turns back to Lee, tightening the bandage around his leg.

“So...how’d you come across these two again?”

“Well...when that girl there pulled me out, she took me over to a...a tree house of sorts. They've been there all by themselves for nearly two days…”

“I thought she said you just ‘pulled in’ when this all started.”

“Uuh...uh Yeah, I did.” Lee answers in an unsure tone of voice, causing Hershel to give him a look of slight disbelief mixed with an ever-growing sense of suspicion. Once the wound was properly cleaned, the old man lets out another small grunt.

“Well, that's the best it's gonna get. We’ll keep an eye on it for now, if it starts to swell up or you develop a fever, we're probably dealing with an infection.”

“What’ll you do if that does happen?” Lee asks nervously, looking over to the two other girls once his question goes unanswered for a few seconds.

_“We may just have to shoot you”_

All three of the survivors exchange worried, shocked expressions as they let Hershel's dead-serious answer sink in…

...until the old gentleman cracks a smile at Lee’s expense.

“We’ll clean it, change the bandage, and you’ll be fine.” he then turns around and faces the two girls once he reassures Lee, to which Clementine responds nervously as he looked at the both of them.

“I don’t believe I got your names either…” He asks in a gentle manner. Slowly the girls look at one another, with Clementine seeming to be a bit more hesitant to give out her name than the girl next to her...but nevertheless, she brings forth what child-like courage she had, and speaks to him in yet another hesitant manner.

“Clem...Clementine...I’m Clementine.”

“And I’m Ellie. Just Ellie.” the girl next to her quickly adds.

“Well...can’t imagine what you two’ve been through…” Hershel adds in a slightly disheartened tone, before standing himself up.

“Alright, barn’s just over there, y’all can sleep there for the night if you want.”

“Thanks” Lee responds, struggling to stand himself up on his wounded leg. Nevertheless, he gives him a gracious nod, and motions the girls to follow him to the barn.

As they slowly settled into their makeshift beds consisting of a questionable amount of hay, Ellie and Clementine struggle to fall asleep, with the smaller girl scrunching her nose in response to the repugnant odor that fills the interior.

“...It smells like…”

“...Ass…” Ellie remarks, silently cursing as she realizes yet another curse had slipped from her lips instead of what she actually meant.

“I mean-uh...not that, I meant...uh…uuh...”

“Manure.” Lee adds in from his side of the hay, shooting a rather amused glance at the red-head as her face slowly matched the color of her own hair.

“Y-...yeah...Manure…”

“Manure? Like when a horse...plops?” Clementine asks Lee, sitting herself up a bit as to give him more attention...though his short answer seemingly demotivates her a bit.

“Just like that…”

“Ew…”

As the two girls slowly fell asleep in their less-than-comfortable hay beds, Lee looks over to the Ellie as she sat awake, listening closely to Clementine as she muttered her last sentence before allowing sleep to overcome her. The mention of the girl’s parents as she fell asleep only sours her mood, even as she laid awake in the hay. Concerned for her well-being, he sits up a bit to get a better view of her, nudging her a bit from across his own sleeping spot.

“Hey...you doin’ alright?”

“Hmm? What?” Ellie asks as she was brought out of her own train of thought, barely registering what Lee had asked her earlier.

“Was just checking to see if you were doing alright...looked like you were thinking long and hard on something.”

“...Well, yeah, I kinda was.” She sighs, laying herself back down. As she stared up at the roof of the barn, she once again hears Lee - with an ever-present hint of concern - ask her a question she didn’t quite prepare for.

“So, you wanna tell me what’s got you down?”

She remains silent, knowing full-well that she was about to venture in territory she didn’t want to even get near in the first place.

The subject of Joel.

“...I’m just...worried a bit, alright?”

“About what?” Lee continues.

“About a guy I know...someone I’m close to.”

“Like uh...your dad?” Lee asked, now giving her his full attention as she began to spill the beans

“...Something like that, yeah.” She then sits herself up a little more, preparing herself for what might be a long-winded story...before disregarding what she had prepared in favor of a shorter, more on-the-point explanation. “He’s back down in Macon and...well I have no idea what's going on down there. I’m just worried that...he might be hurt or...or looking for me or…”

“Looking for you?” Lee asks, the previous subtle air of concern now making itself more known as the subject of her being a runaway slowly unearthed itself.

“...Yeah. Look I ran away before shit hit the fan, okay? It was...over some stupid bullshit, and now that there’s a bunch of dead people running around, I’m just...worried something happened to him, alright? Are you happy now?”

“Sorry...didn’t mean to pry, I just…” Lee slunks back down a bit as a twang of guilt pierced his former expression of concern. With the situation now seeming more tense than it should be, he figured to try and lighten things up before falling asleep. “I got a few folks in Macon as well...if uh...if we get a ride here, you’re more than welcome to come with us.”

Ellie seemingly remained quiet in response to Lee’s question, and after a minute or so of this continued silence, he sighs and slowly slumps back down on the hay.

It’s only when he hears her answer, of course, that he finds himself feeling slightly at ease with her situation.

“...Yeah...that sounds like a good idea...just uh...just don’t go leaving me behind here when we do get going.”

“We’ll stick together, at least until we find your dad.”

“He’s not my dad.” Ellie quickly adds, although her tone suggested that it wasn’t an entirely definite answer. “He’s…He’s a…”

“I get it, I understand.” Lee finally interjects. “Let’s just...try to get some sleep, alright? We got a lot of stuff to do before we leave tomorrow.”

“Yeah...uh...thanks Lee…”

“It’s no problem. Really, it isn’t…”

 

With that said, as Lee and Ellie finally fell asleep, the red-headed girl couldn’t help but think on Lee’s offer. Granted, it wasn’t like what Clementine had promised...but at least she’d actually get to accompany the little girl for a while longer.

That thought slowly began to embed itself into her mind as she finally closed her eyes, the idea of searching for Joel with her new friend...or at the very least, being able to be safe with her...it gave her a sense of relief that slowly grew into something more than just that...

 

_...A subtle, unknowable feeling that slowly replaced her initial fears of facing this ever-growing apocalypse by herself._


	3. Macon Bound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the group fully rested, Lee, Clementine, and Ellie are soon put to work at Herschel's Farm, while Lee figures out their course of action - with the help of a certain displaced family of three.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Chapter 3. It took practically two and a half months of procrastenation, creative burnout/rejuvination, and a bit of inspiration here and there to finally finish the damn thing, though I had to once again end it short of what I originally wanted (less this chapter take up about 17 more pages before I actually end it). I can't make promises on if the next chapter will be finished faster than the last one, but I will say this: Expect Ellie, Clem, and Lees' relationship to only grow stronger in the coming chapters. 
> 
> Beyond all of that, I honestly hope you all enjoy this one. I decide to take a page from the site here and incorporate a different style of writing akin to the most recent post I made, so let me know what you all think of it!

As the morning sun slowly filters into the barn, Ellie struggles to wake herself up with the others. In fact, both Lee and Clementine would still be fast asleep as she slowly woke up, only fully awakening once they were beckoned by another individual to get to work.

“Hey, Get up. We got some work to do.”

“Ah...do we really have to, right now?” Ellie mutters as she twists herself onto her back, rubbing the undersides of her eyes gently.

“I’d like to sleep in as much as you, sweetheart, but we keep this guy waiting any longer and he might just pour some ice water on us. Now get on up.” With a low groan, Lee eventually sits himself up alongside Ellie, massaging the base of his neck out of discomfort. Clementine would be the last to wake up, but unlike the others she seemed a bit more lively - though at the cost of scratching at her head.

“Uhg...I’m itchy” She complains as she and Ellie got out of their makeshift hay-bed. The newcomer - a southern man with a thick mustache and a cotton hat - bends down to Clementine’s level for a moment, giving both of the girls a small smile.

“Well that's because you slept in a barn, little missy. You’re lucky you don’t got spiders crawling in your hair.” The little girl lets out a shocked gasp at the prospect, reaching for her curly mess of hair the moment the man mentions the possibility of spiders making their home in it. Ellie, on the other hand, snorts a bit at Clementine’s reaction...though she too subconsciously runs a hand through her own hair the moment it was mentioned. Seeing the reactions of both girls, the man lets out a small chuckle and reassures them in an ever-so-calm manner. “But I'm sure your daddy here went and scared them all away. Ain't that right?”

“Oh, I'm not her dad.” Lee adds in. “I'm taking care of her until we find her parents. Name’s Lee.”

“Kenny. Got quite the duo here friend.” He then looks over to the two girls standing beside him, with Clementine looking noticeably shy around the man while Ellie seemed more skeptical than anything. Before he could ask further, a small boy runs up to the entryway, eyes wide open and smiling like the world hadn't even ended.

“Dad, come on, we’re gonna build a fence! There's a tractor and everything!”

And just like that, he runs off towards the direction of the porch. Letting out a exhausted sigh, Kenny looks back at the others, motioning them to follow behind. As they filed themselves out of of the barn, Kenny would pace himself beside Lee in order to better acquaint himself with the three. “That’s my son, Ken Junior, though we call him Duck.”

“Dodging or Quacking?” Lee asks, a small hint of humorous curiosity escaping from his tone of voice.

“Uh...Quacking.”

“DAAAAAD!” Duck yells out, almost as if on queue, and in turn not-so-silently proving Kenny’s point. Eventually the small group comes across the boy once again, standing in front of a woman with dirty-blonde hair. As they turned their attention to Lee and the others, Kenny stops right next to the others, quickly mentioning their plan to head to Macon.

“So, word is y’all are heading towards Macon.” Lee nods at the mention of it, motioning to both himself and Ellie as he responded to Kenny’s question.

“My family’s from there, and the girl here has a relative that’s close by.”

“Well, Macon’s on the way, and personally I’d appreciate having the company of a couple of guys who can ‘knock a few heads together’ if it comes down to it.” Silently, Lee looks back at the two girls that stood behind him, primarily towards Clementine as she hid behind the man in a shy, slightly nervous manner.

“I’ll see what the girls want before we really decide.”

“Have to consult the missus. I get it.” He then turns to the others sitting near the porch, introducing Lee and the others to them in a polite manner.

“Honey, Duck this is Lee, and uh…” He looks back at Ellie and Clementine for a moment, then towards Lee. “...what’re the girls’ names?”

“Clementine.” Says Lee, motioning to the little girl hiding behind him, then to the other girl who stood right beside him. “And this here is Ellie.”

“Clementine and Ellie.” Kenny repeats, to which his wife responds in a calm, yet cheerful manner.

“Those are very pretty names.” She says, smiling at the two as she did.

“Thanks.” Clementine peeps from behind Lee, who slowly accompanies Ellie as Shawn walks over to the group from the house.

“Well, we should get to work. We all know what those things are capable of, so the faster we get this thing up, the better.”

“I wanna build a fence!” Duck pipes up at the mention of working on the fortifications. Shaun, looking over at the energetic boy for a moment, gives him a small nod and motions towards the back yard.

“Well, I need a foreman to be on duty. You can sit on the tractor and yell at me whenever I take a water break.”

“A tractor? Cool!” Duck yells again, and almost immediately he sprints off towards the back yard, with Shawn lagging behind him in tow. Katjaa, meanwhile, gives Lee a small look of sympathy, motioning over to Clementine and Ellie.

“I can keep an eye on the girls for you. We can chat.”

“Actually, uh, I need to grab some stuff first. From my bag.” Ellie interjects, quickly backing away from the others. “I’ll catch up with you two later, I just...wanna get something here.”

“Well that’s fine. We’ll be right here if you need anything, dear.”

“Yeah don’t worry. It’ll just be a bit.”

 

Moments later Ellie walks into the barn where they had previously slept, grabbing her ragged backpack and digging through its contents. As she pulled out a worn comic, she hears someone approaching from behind and, turning around to see who this visitor was, she’d be relieved to see that it was just Lee.

“Hey there. Everything alright?”

“Yeah, just needed to grab my stuff, you know.” She then pulls away from the backpack, letting the comic hang to her side. It wouldn’t be long before she notice’s Lee eyeing the old paperback booklet, and soon enough he

“What do ya got in your hand?” Lee asks, pointing to the comic she held in her hand.

“Oh this? It’s a comic book...” She then holds it up to give Lee a better view. Her older edition of _Savage Starlight_ held in clear view, title printed in bold white and black letters.

“Savage Starlight?” asked Lee, catching her off-guard for a moment. She didn't expect him to actually ask about her niche comic book, but nevertheless she still takes the oppertunity to expand on it briefly.

“Yeah, it's Sci-fi. You know...like the nerdy stuff you see everywhere else.”

“Nah, I get it. Used to read a few comics myself back in the day...kinda fell out of it of course, but they were interesting enough.”

“Yeah...Just hoping I can find the others when I get home.”

“You got more?” Lee asks, raising an eyebrow out of curiosity.

“Well, duh. Joel always found a way to get me the things, never really asked how.”

“Alright then...I uh...also wanted to ask…” He leans up on one of the barn’s support beams, the former air of neutral conversation and interaction turning into a subtle form of concern the moment he asks his next question. “So this Joel person...are you sure he’s around? And if he is, what’s your plan when ya find him?”

“Didn’t we talk about this last night?” Ellie adds in, a slight hint of irritation coating her voice as she answered.

“We did, but we didn’t talk about what’ll happen next.”

“Well I don’t know, okay?” Ellie finally admits, sinking down a bit in response to her own statement. “I was hoping...I don’t know, maybe we’d...stay with him, wait for all of this to blow over, you know?”

“You really think he’d be the type of guy that’ll take in a couple of strangers?”

“I mean, it’s just...you know…” She pauses for a short moment as the simulation slowly played out in her mind: The three of them sitting in her well-fortified house, safe and sound, and in a place she knew like the back of her hand. After visualizing her own plan, she musters up enough courage to continue. “...You stay in a place you’re comfortable with, stuff like that. I was kinda hoping...you and Clem and I could just hold out in Joel’s house, with him, until things get better.”

“You sure that's a good idea? I mean...what if it turns out that, as soon as we get there, the whole place is crawling with those things?”

“I don't know...I really don’t, but if it makes you feel any better; I know the place like I know Boston...a bit. If Joel isn’t there...well...it’s still a place we can hold out in, right?”

“Honestly? Not too sure about that, Ellie...” Lee carefully admits. “It’s definitely a plan though, if things don’t go too well in Macon.”

“Yeah, I just...wanna be sure, you know? Ever since Clem told me about her parents I kinda...wanna do the same thing she wanted to do...which was to just, I don’t know, board up the windows and wait to see if he comes back, if he isn’t there.” The mention of Clementine’s parents seemingly causes the man to avert his gaze for a moment. Suspicious by his reaction and slowly recalling that same expression back at Clementine’s house, she presses on with yet another question in mind. “Hey, I need to ask you something.”

“Uh-what?” Lee asks, surprised by Ellie’s sudden question.

“Look, I’m assuming this stuff is happening everywhere, but when you turned on that answering machine, right? Did you...did you find anything out about her parents?” Lee pauses for another moment as she presented her concerns for the girl just outside. Noting this, and unaware of the fact that he heard her the first time, she interjects once again. “I mean, I know it’s weird to ask right now and stuff, but…”

“I was hoping to keep it under wraps a little while longer but...yeah I...don’t think her parents made it.”

“Fuck...Is it bad to say that I half-expected that?” Asks Ellie, once again a slight hint of pessimism following from her tone of voice.

“No, that ain’t bad at all...though uh, I don’t think that’s a healthy way of thinking it.”

“I mean, they didn’t show up during that three-day hold-out in her tree-house...I kinda just expected something bad happened down there at least.” She then hesitates a moment longer as a single ultimatum came to mind - one she wasn’t fond of in the slightest. It wouldn’t be easy, but it was an inevitability that she’d find out sooner or later, and it’d bring on more than a few issues. “Still...shit...should uh...should we talk to her about this stuff?”

“No no, that wouldn’t be a good idea.” Lee quickly interjects. “I get you two are close friends but...hearin’ something like that in times like these? That’d mess anyone up, and we can't have that right now.”

“Yeah...I just hope that isn’t the case with Joel.”

“Shouldn’t be. Sounds to me like he can handle himself well.” replied Lee, though it didn’t help with easing Ellie’s mood one bit. Shaking her head, she stands herself up and straps her backpack onto her back, looking him dead in the eyes.

“Hey, no offence, but I know Joel. He’s a hardass, yeah...but I can't stop thinking he might end up like...you know.”

“Now don’t go thinking like that.” Answers Lee, straightening himself out as Ellie grabbed her stuff. “Things may be pretty rough right now...but we really don’t know what’s going on, especially in other places. We gotta have that hope that they’re still around...like with Clem, and her...well…”

“Yeah, but hearing what happened with them...kinda bogs you down, right?”

“That don’t mean everyone’s like that.” Lee retorts. “Who knows, he could be holding out in that house, like you said. And if he isn’t...well we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds a lot better than what I had going on…”

“Right…” Before he could continue, the two of them hear Shawn calling for Lee from the backyard. Sighing, he turns back to Ellie once again. “Well...better go see what’s up.”

“Yeah, I’ll stick with Clem until you need anything.” Ellie replies.

“Alright, and if ya need anything yourself, just yell.”

“Got it...and Lee?”

Lee then turns back to her for a moment, his face expressing a fair share of curiosity and concern. “Yeah Ellie?”

“Thanks for doing what you’re doing. For both of us, I mean.”

With that said, he gives her a silent nod and an accompanying smile, before wandering off to help Shawn.

Eventually she too would leave the barn, walking back to where Clementine and Katjaa were both hanging around, seating herself closest to the little girl.

“Well well, welcome back.” Greets Katjaa, a warm smile following in suit.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Ellie responds, motioning back to the barn as she made herself comfortable on the bale of hay. “Lee wanted to check in, see how things were.”

“Don't worry, I understand.”

After a small moment of silence followed suit, Ellie notices Clementine eyeing the comic book she held in hand. Seeing the ever-growing curiosity in the book, she holds it up in clear view for her.

“You interested?”

“Maybe…” Clementine answers hesitantly. “What's it about?”

Ellie’s grin only grows at the possibility of attracting a new fan to her favorite comic series. Granted, she was probably a little too young to understand the vast complex relationships between the crewmates, or what The Travellers real goal was, or how dark space was even a thing, but nevertheless she lets loose her unquestionably-vast knowledge of the fictional universe onto the young mind.“Well, it's about this totally badass space pilot named Daniela Star finding a new form of space travel and finding out about these ancient, huge aliens called “The Travellers” who come back every fifty-thousand years to harvest everyone and make more of themselves, and she’s kicking ass all the way through. It’s...yeah, it's definitely one of my favorites here.”

“Oh...that does sound pretty cool.” Says Clementine, scooting herself a little closer to Ellie as her interest in the comic grew. “Are there any scary monsters in it?”

“Umm...well there are ‘The Travelers’, but I'm not too sure if they're really monsters.”

“You seem to have quite the interest in these kind of books, don't you?” Says Katjaa, in an attempt to join in on the conversation.

“Yeah...its nice, reading up on all this cool space stuff, you know? Could you imagine just being up there seeing all of that? Aliens and whole different planets, like, that would be so badass...”

“Oh I certainly couldn't. Space isn't quite in my job description, you see. But, I know they always need more people up there.”

“I always wanted to go up there one of these days. Sounds stupid, I know...but it's always been on my mind.”

“That's not stupid.” Clementine retorts in the middle of the two, giving off a sense of childlike wonderment as she continued. “I think it's pretty cool you want to be an astronaut...I bet it’d be pretty scary though, being so high off the ground.”

“Yeah…” She pauses for a moment as the idea slowly settled in her mind, travelling through the dark depths of space with nothing more than some motley crew of explorers. Entertaining the idea a bit more, she leans back on the bit of hay they sat on and looks over to the little girl next to her. “What about you? Think you’d like to be an astronaut?”

“Uhm...I'm not too sure. I think I’d be a little scared.”

“Well, what if I came with ya? Flying it and everything?” Ellie asks, giving the little girl a small, coy smirk to accompany her question

“It’d definitely be better.” she answers, returning the smile in favor.

 

The lull in action felt relaxing, if not downright comforting to Ellie in comparison to the three nights Clementine and her spent hiding in the tree house. Adding onto this, Ellie would spend a majority of her time brightening up the mood by spouting out a few puns she had on hand, causing Clementine no shortage of laughter and even getting a stifled chuckle from the veterinarian keeping watch. It eventually reached the point where the two finally felt as if the world had never ended, especially in the company of others as they waited for Lee to finish what he needed to do. The worries Ellie had about the events prior - Clementine’s missing parents, the dead roaming the earth, the horrific apocalypse slowly blanketing the world - all melted away with time as she began to share a few of her comic books with Clementine.

But as with everything else, all good things must come to an end.

Just as she was about to explain the possible origin of the fictional “Travelers” to the little girl, a terrified scream broke the once-calming silence, followed by various shouts coming from the adults. What was once a peaceful scene turned hectic as Lee sprinted to the backyard, Katjaa bursted out from the house and Kenny followed just behind, the dull rumble of a tractor’s engine barely drowning out the pained and horrified yelling that characterized the chaos forming around them. Quickly, Ellie pushes herself off of the hay bail and runs towards the backyard, yelling over to Clementine as she reaches the corner of the farmhouse.

“Stay there, and wait until I say It’s good, okay!? Just stay there!”

“Wait!” Clementine yells back, quickly disobeying her instructions and following behind Ellie as closely as she could.

What they find instead was an injured Shawn, trapped underneath an active tractor as the undead grasped for the injured farmer boy. Behind him, Duck looked on in fear as he struggles underneath the weight of the tractor, unaware of the danger he was in until another one of the creatures grabbed for him. Screaming and yelling over the low gurgling and gagging of the undead, the two struggle to break out of their grasp as Lee - having just made it to the scene - grabs for Duck first. As he pulled the child out of the Walker’s grasp, Ellie finds herself sprinting over to Shawn’s aid by grabbing the farmer boy’s arm in a vain attempt to pull him out from underneath the tractor.

Eventually, as Lee manages to free Duck from the Walker’s grasp and shortly after Kenny comes to their aid, she finds herself struggling to find ways of helping Shawn, going so far as to attempt to keep the Walkers back by way of swinging a loose 2x4 at them, to no effect on her part. She turns to both of the men as Shawn called for help, her panicked expression only being met with Kenny and Lee’s as she dropped the 2x4.

“Lee! Someone, help me get him out!” she calls out, going back to her previous attempt of pulling the boy out from the tractor.

Only instead of a helping hand, she gets a glimpse of Kenny as he sprints away from the scene with Duck held tightly in his arms.

“Kenny! Kenny what the fu-”

Before she could even finish, the undead break through the rickety barricade that held them at bay and tear through the poor farmer boy within seconds. Just as she barely got away, she feels a hand grabbing her arm, quickly dragging her away from the encroaching Walkers as they shifted their attention to the other survivors. Before they could act, however, a deafening blast sounded just behind her as a Walker’s head exploded into a flurry of bone and rotting flesh. Turning around, she’d see Lee dragging her away as Herschel - armed with an old shotgun - fired on the feasting intruders, finishing off the last Walker with another well-placed shot to the head.

As the chaos died down and Shawn’s unfortunate situation was made known to everyone else, Herschel quickly made his way to his dying son and kneeled down to his side, comforting him as he struggled to speak. Ellie, on the other hand, slowly picked herself up with the help of Lee, and joined up with Clementine as the others gathered near the tractor. An unsettling, tense silence blanketed the area, even as the old man slowly rose from his position, hands clenched tightly as he muttered his next command.

“...Get out…”

At first, no one seemed to understand what he meant at first. Even Ellie seemed a little nervous at first as she looked to Clementine and Lee, only bringing her attention back to the farmer once he began yelling at them.

“GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!!!”

After the second time, there would be a long, tense pause between Herschel and the others, which quickly dissipates once a guilt-ridden Kenny mutters his own apology.

“...I’m sorry…”

“Sorry?!” Herschel yells, pointing to Duck in a fit of rage. “Your son’s still alive! You don’t GET to be sorry! And you…”

He then looks over to Lee, the anger and grief almost palpable with each passing second as he quickly gathered his thoughts.

“...You didn’t even try to help. That little girl there tried more than you!”

“I...thought I could help them both!” Lee responds, to which Ellie quickly speaks out in his favor.

“He tried! He did, I’m telling you, we both tried to help!”

“Yeah? Look at him…” Herschel growls, pointing to the deceased Shawn that was still pinned to the tractor.

“You couldn’t of gotten them both...and if you tried, it wouldn’t of made a difference...not with this piece of shit next to you.” He shoots a look of pure hatred towards Kenny for a moment, before focusing his attention back squarely on the other two. “Remember that the next time your girls are in trouble...just…” He then kneels down for a moment, the reality of the situation bearing down hard on the old man as he looked back at the body strewn out near the fence. Once he regained his composure, he continues on in a lowered tone.

“Please...just go...get out, and never come back…”

With that said, Lee exchanges a glance between Clementine and Ellie - both of whom seemed worried about what would happen next - then onto Kenny and his family. As the man approached the three, he looks over towards Herschel for a moment, before looking to the ground, muttering to them in an equally low tone of voice.

“...You’ve got that ride to Macon, if you want it.”

With a silent nod, he looks back to Clementine and Ellie once again, motioning them to follow closely as Kenny, Katjaa and Duck quietly made their way to the truck. As they followed, Ellie would glance back at Herschel a moment longer, the scene still playing out in her mind time and time again until she felt a small hand taking hold of hers. Looking back, she’d see Clementine looking pale as a ghost, sticking close to Lee as she held onto Ellie’s hand...and in turn, she keeps the girl’s hand in hers, as a way to try and comfort her from the horrid scene they just witnessed.

  


Hours later, the six of them had managed to drive out towards the outskirts of Macon, with Ellie having taken to sitting in the rear of the pick-up to account for the lack of space. As they entered the small neighbourhoods that surrounded the city, she’d hear Katjaa opening the window behind her.

“Are you okay back there, sweetheart?” She asks in an all-too-familiar tone of motherly concern.

“Uh...yeah, I’m good. Just...keeping an eye out.” she responds in a half-hearted manner, her mind focused on other events...at least, until she begins to recognize the empty streets they drove through. Soon enough Lee would be the one to turn around from the front seat.

“You recognize any of this?”

“...Yeah! Just uh...take a right up here, on that dirt road!”

With that said, the group makes a detour past what remained of the streets, driving onto the dirt road mentioned. It doesn’t take long for them to start slowing down, however, as it began to weave through rough wooded terrain, with Kenny having to occasionally having to tactically move over and through fallen trees that blocked the way

“Kid, you sure this is the right way? Feels like I’m driving straight into a damn hiking trail than a road.” Kenny asks, frustrated over having to carefully drive through the winding road.

“Yeah, It’s just a shortcut I use to take, so it shouldn’t be that far.” She responds in turn, her sights set squarely on the path ahead.

Eventually, as the group made their way through the neighborhood, they finally come across a lone house set at the end of the now-gravel-paved pathway. Ellie sits herself up at the sight of the house, noting how relatively untouched it was - from the front porch to the fenced-off back yard, even the houses flanking each side of it seemed in-tact, saved for perhaps a shattered window or front door left slightly ajar. Quickly, she peeps her head into the small window on the back of the truck, pointing towards the house itself.

“Right there, that’s the place!”

“Really?” Asks Kenny, studying the house a little more as he slowly came to a stop. “Looks...well I wanna say ‘trashed,’ but...”

“Yeah...this is the place alright…” Ellie mutters in response, quickly climbing out from the back of the truck. Both Lee and Kenny stare at her for a moment as she moved to the front of the vehicle, watching as she anxiously scanned the front of the house for any signs of life.

“So...what’s your plan here, Lee?” Kenny finally asks, his gaze still fixed on the red-head as, unsurprisingly, she leaned on the front of the truck once done with her survey, as if she was waiting for their permission to go. At first, Lee didn’t seem to answer - the man simply kept focusing on the front door that sat slightly ajar, expecting something to crawl through with blood on its mouth and half of its body torn from the waist. It’s only when Kenny grabs his attention once again that he realizes he was being asked a question.

“Lee, did you hear me?” He asked again, obviously irritated by his lack of a response.

“What-uh, no, sorry, I didn’t catch that.” Lee answers, turning himself to face the southern man.

“I asked if you have a plan. You sure this guy here is even alive?” The question seemingly takes him off-guard at first. With everything that happened today, he never even considered the possibilities - what would happen if they found this “Joel” or if he ended up like everyone else unlucky enough to get caught in all of the chaos. It took him a minute to gather his bearings, though it didn’t help that he had to ab-lib everything from the get-go.

“Uh...alright, well, plan’s simple. We’re gonna go in, check and see if the guy is here or not. If he isn’t, we get out and make our way into Macon.”

“And if he is alive…?” Kenny interjects, an eyebrow raised in slight suspicion. That was gonna be the hard part in all of this - figuring out what to do if it turns out this ‘Joel’ was alive and kicking. While on one hand there would at least be the knowledge that he’s alive, Ellie would be with him, and that would be that, but there were still doubts about what she offered - especially when it came to both him and Clementine coming along with. Regardless, Kenny was still waiting on his answer - if it was even something to begin with.

“We’ll...I don’t know, we’ll figure it out when we get there.”

“Well you better figure it out soon, because I don’t think we’ll have enough room for another guy here.” Kenny then motions to the truck bed, figuring it would be enough to give them an idea on how unconditional it would be to have yet another passenger. It didn’t help that the way he put it made it seem hostile at worse, and mildly agitated at best at the mention of yet another stranger riding along with them. That only lasted for half-a-second before he returns to his calm demeanor, motioning to the road up ahead. “Look, if I see anything headin’ our way, I’ll honk for you as the signal to get the hell on over to the truck. That means you better haul ass the moment you hear it, no dawdling or screwin’ around in-between. We clear on that?”

“Crystal.” Lee simply replied, nodding to add onto the answer. He then opens the door of the truck slightly, staring back at Kenny for a moment longer. “Just stay here until then.”

“I don’t plan on going anywhere special.”

 

After discussing their plan, Lee then steps out of the truck and makes his way around to Ellie, with Clementine quietly following behind as they looked on towards the seemingly empty house.

“Well...here we are. Home sweet home…” Ellie murmurs, looking towards the front door that sat slightly open. While the place seemed relatively devoid of life on the outside, there was still a nagging feeling of paranoia washing over her - something she hadn’t felt in a long time. “...Should we...go in?”

“We came all this way, Ellie.” Lee softly replied,   “It’d be a waste of gas if we back out now…”

There was no denying that was the case. While there was a reasonable amount of anxiety going around, the trip home would’ve been all for nothing if they never had the chance to investigate. Even then, she’d rather have the comfort of knowing what happened to Joel, compared to the reluctant situation involving Clementine’s own parents. “Right…” she muttered, pushing herself off the truck’s hood with little effort. “Let’s get on in there.”

“Alright then.” Before they moved forward, however, it was obvious Lee quietly voiced his concerns over their initial plan, now more than ever as they readied themselves to enter. It couldn’t be helped that the stakes were raised with the possibility of Kenny abandoning them should things go wrong inside - something he’d rather avoid now more than ever with Clementine in tow. “So what are we looking for here, Ellie?”

She hesitated to answer, as the sudden realization hit her. At first things were simple - get home, find Joel, get out. Seemed simple enough as it was back at Herschel’s, but this was before she realized that the old man wasn’t even around. “Uh...I uh...I don’t know, being honest here.”  She answers hesitantly, a hint of embarrassment tinging her response “Maybe...a note? Or something that will tell me that he’s alive somewhere, you know? Something that says ‘Hey, I’m still around, haven’t been eaten by the living dead, hope you can find me.’ Or something like that...”

With a solemn nod, he stands himself back up and looks over to the house once again. The thought of Clementine joining them, however, didn’t dispel the uneasiness he felt when it came to the girl’s safety

“Okay then...stay close, and keep an eye out. We’re only gonna be here for a bit.”

 

Inside, the interior didn’t fare any better; The living room was completely ransacked, with chairs and couches left bloodied and ripped, bookshelves thrown aside, even shattered glass covering a large portion of the floor. Blood covered a small part of the room, a trail of which led towards the second floor, disappearing around the corner that looped inward towards the hallway above. Further on in it was obvious that whoever was here previously left no stone unturned, as drawers cluttered the center of what seemed to be the kitchen, with perhaps more damage left around the corner. It left Ellie in a distraught state as she observed the horrendous condition of her house, the previous hope of finding Joel having melted away within seconds even as Lee made his way forward to investigate.

“Holy shit…” Ellie mutters. “...What happened here?”

“No idea…” Lee responds, looking towards the stairs for a moment. “...Maybe some sort of struggle...or an accident, or something.”

“Maybe one of those monsters are still in here...are they?” Clementine peeps as she stood close to Ellie, who shakes her head in response.

“No...no, it looks old...but we should definitely be careful.”

“I was just about to say that.” Says Lee once again, turning back to the girls once he made his complete observation. “Looks like it’s clear down here. I’ll check upstairs, see if anything’s still lurking around. Think you’ll be alright with Clementine?”

“Yeah, we’ll be good.” Says Ellie with a nod, pointing towards the stairs. “There should only be a few bedrooms up there...Mine should be at the end, Joel’s is right at the top of the steps.”

“Alright then.” He responds, turning to Clementine soon after. “Stay with Ellie until I get back, okay? It’ll only be for a bit.”

“...Okay, Lee.” She says in a hesitant manner. Once reaffirmed by both of their answers, Lee then takes a broken table leg in hand and slowly makes his ascent to the second floor, disappearing around the corner once he reached the top of the steps. Ellie, meanwhile, would move one of the couches back into its original, upright position with the help of Clementine, with the both of them sitting down together soon afterwards. While they listened closely to Lee making his way through the second floor, Ellie in turn lets out a sigh and leans back on the dirty couch, arms stretched out on each side as she attempted to break the ice.

“So...you feeling alright?”

“...Kind of...I feel a little shaky though.” Says Clementine, scooting herself back further into the couch a bit.

“From Herschel’s?” Ellie inquired, finding to her dismay that she’d only get an uneasy silence from Clementine as her answer. Her expression slowly turned from worry to utter confusion as she sat herself closer to the red-headed teen, whispering to her in a not-so-silent voice.

“Why are people eating each other? And why are they so...horrible-looking?”

Ellie found herself hesitating to answer her concerns as soon as they were voiced, though truthfully she herself had no idea as to why people were going bat-shit insane. The dead were walking the earth in the most literal sense of the phrase, yet she couldn’t find a good way to explain it perfectly - especially to someone six years younger than her. “I’m as lost as you on that, Clem…” She finally admits.“Maybe it really is some sort of, I don’t know, a Zombie Apocalypse or something.”

“...Zombies?” Clementine asks, her child-like curiosity getting the best of her. “Like...umm…moving dead people?

“Yeah, kind of. They’re uh...basically walking corpses, you know, like...Frankenstein, except there’s no crazy guy bringing him back with lightning. Or dead bodies...and stuff like that...”

“...Yuck.” She responds, scrunching up her face in disgust at the initial idea, which then turns into fear once the image digests in her mind.

“Will we turn into those things if...if they…”

“No no no, don’t worry, they won’t.” Ellie quickly reassures her. “They’re slow, dumb...we can definitely out-run them easily. And if we can’t, we always got good people nearby. We’ll be fine.”

“...Okay…” She mutters, wrapping her arms around her stomach out of an apparent sense of discomfort. Taking note of this, Ellie - moving herself into a more forward, focused position - quickly reassures the little girl to the best of her ability. “Hey now, it’ll be alright…Look I’m sorry, I shouldn’t of said that stuff about ‘Zombies’ and ‘The Apocalypse’ and what-not.”

“It’s okay…” Says Clementine, pausing for only a second as she shifted herself into a better position. “...I just don’t want anyone turning into those monsters.”

“No one else will, Clem. Now let’s talk about something el-”

A loud bang suddenly follows from the second floor, catching both girls off-guard and cutting Ellie off mid-sentence. It’s soon followed up by a softer bang, causing the two to immediately get off of the bloodied couch.

“...Lee?” Ellie calls out. No response. Not even a conformational grunt, or an assured “I’m fine!” It only served to bring forth an apprehensive Ellie more stress than needed, with her imagination playing out scenario after scenario of an injured Lee tumbling down the stairs, or a Walker crawling from the hallway in place of the former college professor. Her imaginings became a more plausible reality as the silence continued uninterrupted, and with a nervous glance towards the younger girl, she gathers up the courage to call out to him once again.

“Lee, come on, quit fucking around!”

“I’m fine, I’m okay! Just...lost my footing is all!” He finally yells back, bringing both girls a deep sense of alleviation the moment they hear his response. After a brief pause between the three, Ellie takes a step forward, moving herself onto the stairs.

“Well what’s going on? Is everything alright?”

“Yeah! Yeah everything’s alright…” Lee yells out once again, though there’d be a noticeable touch of apprehension to his remark. Cautiously, both Ellie and Clementine climbed the stairs up to the second floor, just in time to see Lee pick himself up from the floor with a groan. He leaned himself up on one of the walls as soon as he regained his composure, just across from a bloodied bedroom door - a red hand-print covering the doorknob as a streak of which curved outwards towards the floor. It then slowly dawned on her on just whose room it was - as Joel’s room was closest to the stairs, she realized the blood-stained door was her own. More of a reason to worry about whatever was inside. Before she could even ask, Lee shakes his head and motions to the door. “It’s uh...locked. I was tryin’ to force it open when I...lost my footing.”

“Geez.” Ellie exhales, looking towards the door once again as she quickly realized which bedroom they were at. Taking into account the blood-stained hand print on the door knob and the fact that if was locked, there was a slow build of unease as she began to connect the dots, even more-so when taking Lee’s excuse into account. “...Uh...well...shit, you sure it’s locked?”

“Positive.” Lee answers quietly, though his concern wouldn’t end at just that. “Why do ya ask?”

“That’s my room.” She responds, motioning to the door closest to the stairs. “Other one’s Joel’s, like I said. Wouldn’t mind grabbing some of my stuff in there, but if we can’t get it…” She hesitates a little as the thought crossed her mind. Sure, she could do with leaving behind a few comics, but there were other things in there she couldn’t just abandon - things she knew she’d kick herself if the choice was made to get out. Before she could speak further, Lee picks up from where she drops off.

“We’ll get in there somehow…” He ponders for a minute on the situation, before motioning to Joel’s bedroom. “Let’s just see what we can find in here.”

 

Opening the door revealed that, just like the living room downstairs and the kitchen further inside, the bedroom had seen better days. Drawers laid broken and thrown in one corner of the room while an old suitcase sat in the middle of the bed, a pile of clothes practically spilling out onto the sheets. A window just across from the doorway sat wide open while the tv laid shattered and broken. It was obvious that whatever happened, it happened quickly and unexpectedly, leaving whoever was here little time to prepare. Ellie would be the first to walk in, a nagging feeling making its way to the forefront of her mind as she observed the state of Joel’s room.

“Fuck…” She muttered, her mind drifting onto each and every possible scenario that could’ve happened - from a straight-up house invasion to the dead trying to bust in, it only served to bring forth a sense of dread as to what laid behind the door of her own bedroom. Eventually she’d be joined by Lee and Clementine, both of which look on in dismay at the state of the room.

“Well...looks like he ain’t here either.” Lee mutters in disappointment, quickly backing it up with an edge of reassurance. “But I’m sure that doesn’t mean the worst has come to.”

“Yeah…” She pauses for a moment as the thought crosses her mind once again. While she did feel comfortable hanging with Lee and Clementine, she felt downright terrified about what could’ve happened to him, even more-so now that the possibilities had narrowed down to her own bedroom. Images of a rotting Joel slumped over her bed flashed by as quickly as they disappeared, and once again only served to bring forth nothing but misery and restlessness to the girl, even as they began their search for anything useful.

It took them only but a few minutes of digging, however, until she hears Clementine call out to the both of them.

“Lee! Ellie! Look what I found!” In a fit of excitement, she runs over to the two holding what seemed to be a set of shiny, silver-like keys hooked to a small keyring. Taking them in hand, Ellie studied them for a moment before she recognized their patterns.

“These are the house keys...Joel always kept them on hand, gave me a spare in case he had to go anywhere, and I needed to leave the house for a bit.”

“Did he always do this?” Lee ask, once again showing off a bit of concern for the girl’s past, to which she replied with a casual shake of the head.

“Not all the time. Only when he had to leave me in charge of the house. Most of the time it was to meet up with a girl named Tess, or Bill...” She pauses once again as images of the old guy flashed in her mind. She never once liked Bill - he was an asshole to her whenever he was around, she was an asshole tenfold back to him, and it was obvious that given the chance both would have beaten the hell out of one another were it not for Joel keeping her out of his business. Tess, on the other hand, almost acted like her secondary mom were it not for the fact that both she and Joel were involved in some shady business. Shaking off the memories, she then moves towards the hallway, keys held tightly in her hand. “Alright, well we got these, let’s get in.”

“Now hold on, don’t we search the rest of the house before we do that?” Lee quickly suggests, practically dodging around her request the moment it’s brought up. In fact, he starts combing the room for whatever he could find, with Ellie giving the man an incredulous look.

“Uh...Lee, this place is trashed. We’re not gonna find anything else here.” She states, and while this certainly was the case he continued to search for something to use.

“I know that.” He answers back, finally giving up on his search and, instead, decides to take the leg off of an already-damaged end-table. “We still gotta have a way to protect ourselves, just in case something’s still in there.”

“...Right, well-” She’s soon cut mid-sentence once the silence outside is suddenly broken by a rapid succession of a car horn, coming from the direction of the front yard. They didn’t have to guess what it was that was making the noise, as it’s eventually followed up by the low, distant collection of groans that characterized the undead. “Oh...shit!” she yells out, running out into the hallway and towards her room in a blind panic. Just as she inserts the key into the lock, she hears Lee call out to her.

“Get away from the door!” Turning to face him, she barely had time to register his warning before the door bursts open to reveal a grotesque, rotting walker on the other side, sending her to the floor as it stumbled forward from the doorway and towards her. She lets out a choked gasp as it lets out a gargled snarl, quickly falling forward towards the red-headed teen before she even had a chance to take out the kitchen knife kept in the back-side of her backpack. Before she knew it, the teen was barely keeping the decaying abomination away from her, using one arm at the base of its throat to keep it from descending on her, while her free hand kept one of its arms away from her face.

“Lee! Get-Get this fucking thing off of me!” She yells out, just as she barely keeps the walker from clawing at her with its free hand. She couldn’t see much beyond the writhing corpse, only barely catching glimpses of a frightened Clementine from time to time as the struggle continued. Just as she uses all of her strength to push the walker away from her is when she sees a table leg smash the monster’s head in from its left side, sending it off of her and disorientating it just long enough for Lee to send it down with deadly force. There was an audible, sickly crack that followed suit afterwards, marking the creature’s death as it laid silent and unmoving. She barely had time to register what happened before they hear glass shattering downstairs. Soon enough Lee pulls her up and ushers her towards her room.

“Grab what you need and go! We’re leaving right now!” He yells, turning his attention down towards the stairs. He didn’t even have to ask her a second time as she sprinted into her room, barely touched by the chaos that followed in the wake of the apocalypse. She grabbed whatever valuables she held dear - her pun-books, the forgotten latest edition, and a single picture of her and a close friend, plus anything else she forgotten along the way - threw them in her backpack, and then sprints out to meet the other two, who had already begun their decent down the stairs. Already the undead were crawling through whatever broken window they managed to squeeze through, alongside the back-door that led to the yard just beyond, and she didn’t have a second to spare for what was once her old house.

Running outside proved to be the easier endeavour of what they had to contend with, as several walkers slowly made their approach to the truck - which had now backed towards the front porch. Kenny yelled a flurry of explicatives just as the three ran to the truck, mostly aimed at Lee as he got the little girl in the back seat with Katjaa and Duck.

“What the shit took you so long!? What happened to ‘only look what we need’ Lee?!” He yells out, just as Ellie practically dove into the truck bed with backpack in one hand and knife in the other.

“Just drive god dammit!!” Lee yells back, slamming the truck door shut as the undead tide poured out from the ransacked house. With little other argument or reluctance, Kenny slams his foot on the gas pedal and swerves out from the front yard onto the road ahead. As they sped off towards Macon, the teen sitting in the truck bed couldn’t help but watch as the walker-infested home got smaller and smaller in the distance. She continued to look on until it disappeared completely behind rows of broken, desolate buildings, trying her best to ignore the heated banter between Lee and Kenny as they argued about what happened just moments ago.

It becomes incredibly difficult to ignore it, however, when it starts to involve her.

“Well excuse me for specifically fuckin’ remindin’ y’all to not dawdle!” Kenny retorts, rubbing his temple with one hand as he focused on driving the truck. “We nearly got swarmed back there, you’re damn-well lucky to be sitting in this truck! I mean, Christ man, you fit to take care of those girls with this kind-”

“Hey, I was the one that got them outta it.” Lee responds, his voice dripping with an unseen venom. “It ain’t gonna happen again. You can be certain about that.” Kenny seemingly pauses for a moment at his statement, prepping a counter-argument when Ellie - out of nowhere - interjects in their conversation.

“I panicked. I didn’t listen to Lee when I should of, and I fucked up, okay? Now, can we just...keep driving here, Kenny?” Another silence soon follows between the two men in response, but Kenny was always ready to let loose another argument - this time aimed towards the teen in question.

“Look kid, I like ya, but what happened back there was dangerous for all of us. I can’t risk my family’s neck for a mistake.”

“I don’t need a fucking lecture, I get it.” Ellie snaps back, and before he could chew her out Katjaa motions for him to end it.

“Honey, just let the girl rest.” She murmurs “We’ve all had a rough evening today. Let’s just...wait until we get to Macon, alright?” Once again the fisherman hesitates to ready another response, and in the end he finally falters. With a simple gesture, the conversation ended there, and the group continued their drive towards the city of Macon.

Eventually, even though the adrenaline was still coursing through her veins, Ellie lays back onto the back window of the truck, looking down towards the road as they drove onwards. There was still a nagging feeling in the back of her mind when it came down to it - she couldn’t help but feel that she overreacted a bit in the face of danger, but as she sat her backpack down and pulled out what was collected, she couldn’t help that it was slightly salvaged from it all.

She still hoped, however, that Joel didn’t share the same fate as everyone else in that neighborhood.


End file.
